"The frenzy of vaporware." Topic

Kickstarter and Indie go go (sp?) have become monsters IMHO. It seems you cant go a day without some sort of discussion about these things. They are really vaporware asking for funding and folks are working themselves into a frenzy of what may or may not become interesting product.

Not sure what bothers me about this other than I there are so many of these posts (time wasters)which really tell me nothing.

Al (the grumpy old man)

The only thing I know, is I have yet to know anyone who has not experienced either massive delays (and still waiting on the delivery of the supposed final product), or been totally ripped off by the kickstarter they funded and recieved nothing in spite of a successful launch of the product.

Granted, that sample total is of 5 different projects, not the broadest sample in the world, but the saddest part is they are ALL miniature or war/board game related projects.

It has made me wary of KS to be sure. I never fund more than I care about losing, and of late, I have quit funding them all together.

I dunno… Bombshell Miniatures delivered on their commitments, maybe a few months late – but they also got 7x the funding so a larger scope than expected. They are now operating a business selling the figures funded so win-win.

Over on Indiegogo, Werner Klocke delivered on his promises as well. Yeah, again, a month or two late but definitely not a massive delay.

the KS for Wasteland2 and Shadowrun online are providing returns, and the KS for the Baldur's Gate tech update has already delivered.

Bombshell delivered? I haven't received anything yet… Actually the only one that has (so far) is the Dreadball (from Mantic).

I have only funded ones run by reputable companies.

People need to realise they aren't buying products, they are acting as funding for a project which may or may not make it to completion.

Studio Miniatures plastic zombies where ontime and really nice. It was a very simple indiegogo funding… thing.

But yes – in general the people who run these are not project managers.

…and yes you can waste lots of time on the internet!

It's those pesky stretch goals that add all the delays. I for one will be putting my delivery date out 4-5 months. Will I need that much time? No but it gives me enough wiggle room. I have the numbers that I expect and am even planning for the crazy numbers that I might see. However, its impossible to plan for some of the insanity that has happened on KS.

So far I have only committed to 2 Kickstarters. The first has delivered all the physical components and the bonus electronic items are gradually appearing.

The other only hit its target about a month back and the delivery date is nowhere near on us yet.

As things stand I am happy with what I have got from Kickstarter.

I predict we will get a healthy pipeline at the end of this year. Kickstarter went crazy in Q1 this year with most of those deliveries promised in Q3 or Q4. By next year we should be into a good steady flow.

I have yet to see a kickstarter that I'm interested in funding enough to actually do it. There are some nice ones out there for new games with lots of cool new figures. But I don't really need another game at this point, I barely have time to play the ones I have.

If someone came out with something that met an existing need then I might think about it but at this point those needs are so specific, if it doesn't exist, I might as well do it myself.

Still waiting on OGRE delay on the plastic tray to hold cardboard pieces ! I has left a bad taste . i will pay regular prices when come out from now on .
Or they should limit Kickstarter . No over funding with stretch goals to delay the release . Once the money is in that is it . You want to do more start a second starter .

Ahh but the stretch goals are what make you all the money. How many reaper backers would never have jumped in if you didn't get like 200 minis for less then $0.50 USD each or whatever it ended up being.

I have seen several companies have a reward level that was locked to no stretch goals and had an earlier delivery date.

@Pictors, I've been collecting a ton of skyscraper pics. If the 28mm scifi terrain goes well then we might see a 10mm cityscape kickstarter in the future.

Goalsystem Delves delivered on schedule and I'm very happy with the book. I think it just comes down to supporting someone you know can deliver and would do business with anyway.

I also supported Reaper's bones and At this point, I'm expecting it to be about 5 months late. Again, I have confidence in Reaper's intent and ability to deliver, so this is not a big problem for me.

Dungeon World, Full Moon, Faster Than Light, Mobile Frame Zero, Precision Machined Dice, Risus Adventure Project, Planetary Annihilation, Shadowrun Online, Sorceror Upgrade, Parsec RPG – so far, everything I've backed has been either successfully delivered with minor delays, or is in reasonable production times. So, not vaporware in the slightest.

I don't know that they were all on time but I have received my goods from Order of the Stick, Deep Vistas and the Mass Transit series of game poster/maps, Crossover Miniatures (Super Hero), Tre Manor at Red Box, Little Urban Achievers (The Dude), Zombiecide, Fractured Dimensions (Orcs), two different kickstarters from Ryan Wolfe's Starship Deckplans, Keith Armstrong's Future War Neo-British and probably others I can't think of at the moment.